Founder’s desk

30 August, 2024

I am so pleased to share my vision for FireUp and invite your participation in building America's first career platform exclusively dedicated to the fire and forestry industry.

FireUp launched in April 2024. The idea for this initiative came from the urgent need to operationalize what we learned from the Living with Fire Design Challenge cohorts (2021––2023) and to respond to the Federal Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission’s (2023) workforce recommendations.

FireUp’s focus is on addressing three urgent needs for fire and forestry professionals: good jobs, community, and well-being. These issues affect thousands of workers and employers nationwide, highlighting the need for agile recruitment workflows, diversified career development pathways, and accessible well-being services. 

In the absence of an integrated solution, the fire and forestry industry will continue to see a generational loss of skilled workers, exacerbating challenges with recruitment and retention at a time when this workforce is urgently needed to prepare our nation for a fiery future.

Ongoing workforce development efforts remain siloed, piecemeal, and lack the sustained financing to scale initiatives that can meet worker’s career development and well-being needs.

This is why FireUp exists.

FireUp is working to resolve systemic issues by introducing a platform model that democratizes access to good family sustaining jobs with the potential for cross-training and career mobility across industry, sustaining career growth through mentoring connections, and ensuring trauma-informed care and well-being services are always accessible to fire and forestry workers at all career stages.

Our theory of change is that creating a worker-centered digital infrastructure of care that addresses whole-person needs will lead to a healthy, effective, and sustainable fire and forestry workforce.

We aim to actualize the greatest public benefit and create lasting social impact by addressing persistent geographic, demographic, and industry silos in current workforce pipelines.  

I am delighted to have you join in FireUp’s mission to connect 1 million+ fire and forestry professionals to 100,000+ employers, 10,000+ mentors, and 1,000+ well-being services by 2030!

Your engagement and thought partnership are crucial to this mission. Please feel free to reach out to me with comments, questions, feedback, and offers of support. I look forward to working with you! 

In partnership,
Shefali

Shefali Juneja Lakhina, PhD 
Founder & CEO, FireUp